Beef and Barley Soup

With winter just around the corner our thoughts start turning to menus and recipes that have warmth…………. broths, soups and casseroles.  What could be better than a plate of warm soup with a crusty piece of bread, especially if you can get away with curling up in front of a good movie in your favourite comfortable chair?

There are literally hundreds of soup recipes out there, but if we can suggest a few proven favourites over the coming weeks how good would that be.

First up, is a true hearty tummy warmer straight from “The Australian Women’s Weekly cook it freeze it” cook book, page 10. It was the photo of this dish on the cover that caught my eye and “made“ me buy the book.  The fact that this soup can be frozen is a bonus. This recipe feeds 6 and once the prepping is completed it takes care of itself

Ingredients

1tbls olive oil

500g gravy beef, trimmed, diced into 2.5cm pieces

2 cloves garlic crushed

2 medium brown onions chopped finely

¾ cup pearl barley

3 cups beef stock

1.5 litres water

1 bay leaf

1 sprig fresh rosemary

1 sprig fresh thyme

2 medium potatoes diced into 1cm pieces

2 medium carrots diced into 1cm pieces

2 medium zucchini diced into 1cm pieces

2 medium yellow patty-pan squash diced into 1cm pieces

100g swiss brown mushrooms chopped coarsely

½ cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Heat half the oil in a large saucepan. Cook beef in batches until browned.

Heat the remaining oil in the same pan. Cook garlic and onion stirring until onion softens. Return beef to pan with barley, stock, the water, bay leaf, rosemary and thyme, bring to the boil. Reduce heat , simmer covered about 1 hour or until beef and barley are tender, skimming fat occasionally.

Add potato, carrot, zucchini, squash and mushrooms to soup. Simmer, covered about 25 minutes or until vegetables are softened.

Discard bay leaf, rosemary and thyme sprigs and serve in bowls sprinkled with parsley.

Enjoy M & B x